


Snippets from a Family

by BasicallyAnIdiot



Series: Family Dinner Night [4]
Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Drabbles, F/M, Gen, Haruno Kagami (OC), day in the life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-03-19 23:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18980194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasicallyAnIdiot/pseuds/BasicallyAnIdiot
Summary: Or how the Haruno Family came to be.(Drabbles from the 'Family Dinner Night' series.)





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Tumblr. : D

**First Meeting**

 

~*~*~*~

 

The woman who brought Sasori down with nothing but her dainty fists was glaring at him over the clipboard she carried. Her pen moved swiftly against the paper. Her hair kept to a respectable short length worthy of a kunoichi even if the colour wasn’t. A picture of efficiency. “How long have you had difficulty breathing?”

Itachi paused to consider it. There wasn’t much to be gained by withholding the information. His brother thought him dead and Konoha considered him dangerous enough to warrant being placed under ANBU supervision. The seals would prevent him from getting too far if he felt like escaping. He didn’t. It would be nothing short of a miracle if he saw daylight again.

The medic-nin tapped her pen against her clipboard, sea form eyes narrowing in warning at the silence. Her smile though, was wide and comforting. At odds with her mannerisms. “If you don’t answer me I will knock you out and perform an examination anyway.”

He didn’t doubt it. 

“Years.” A good shinobi would inquire why she was asking. Why did Konoha care about one of it’s disgraces to send a top-notch medic-nin to him? The Hokage’s very own apprentice no less? He was too tired to care any more. His task was done.

She tsked, and marked on her notes. “Have you coughed up any blood?”

“Often.”

This tsk was accompanied by a hand settling on a hip. “And you didn’t seek medical treatment immediately?”

He had tried, when the coughing had started to hamper him. It had been too late. None of the doctors or healers could do anything for him at that point. His death was assured, even if his life as a shinobi hadn’t already guaranteed that. They most they could do was ease his suffering and slow it down. In the end, it forced his hand. “It was unhelpful.”

“You waited to seek treatment because you are an idiot like most shinobi.” The young woman said decisively. “This was probably just a simple cough that evolved into bronchitis, then pneumonia. At which point you used medical jutsu you copied but didn’t understand to keep it back but not get rid of it, scarring your lungs in the process, because you’re an Uchiha on top of being an idiot.” Her smile stayed in place as she tilted her head, pink hair swaying, “Am I close?”

“Enough.” He acknowledged with a slight nod. Around his bound hands, the chains rattled and he leaned back against the wall. The guards had moved him onto the medical examination bed and promptly chained him there. More showy than the seals etched into his skin under the metal cuffs and about a third as effective.

A pink brow rose and the woman snorted. She set her clipboard down on the nearby counter then turned back to him. Her crossed arms flexed muscles that spoke to an extensive training regime. “For reasons beyond me, Tsunade-shishou wants you not only alive, but well. It is my regretful duty to ensure this happens. In short,” Her smile turned sharp, “I’m going to do my job and you aren’t going to make it difficult. Am I clear?”

A dangerous woman. He thought again of Sasori’s death. Artist hands that could level mountains. This, he realized faintly, was not the woman he expected. The story the Hokage had given him of his survival was beginning to ring true. Of a kunoichi who spent three days healing as quickly as Amaterasu destroyed. Was suppose to destroy. “Of course.”

She nodded, “Good” She held up her hands, the faint glow of green chakra surrounded them. “Now lean back and let me take a look. I want to know how badly you frigged your lungs up.”


	2. Spontaneous Promotions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Fifteen years old was instituted for a reason.”
> 
> Naruto’s grin returned, blinding, “Consider an exception.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For ChizomenoHime, who wanted to know about how Kagami was moved to ANBU and how the conversation between Naruto and Kakashi went. 
> 
> As part of this reassignment, Kagami was promoted to Chunin followed six months of ANBU training. Her cover story became Chunin Messenger for the Hokage. In reality, she joined a tracking team that specializes in the neutralization of missing-nin (this is kind of humour is common among ANBU). 
> 
> I also promise I will respond to all the comments I got this past week. My volunteering duties got in the way. : P

**Spontaneous Promotions**

 

**~*~*~*~**

 

Naruto hadn’t updated the walls of the Hokage’s office. Scrolls, different than the ones he had chosen, hung in the same places as did paintings, but none of the colour had changed. Just the lingering off-white and wood of his own days behind the desk.

Odd. He had expected his successor to jump at the chance to paint it all orange.

Instead, Naruto sat hunched over at his desk, a piece of paper in hand as he squinted at it. Off-handedly, with none the usual heat, his student announced, “You’re late.”

Kakashi shrugged, hopping off the window ledge. He felt the shift in the four chakra signatures- the ANBU team he had assigned to Hokage-Babysitting Duty- assessing him before they resettled, dismissing him. One of these days he should pretend to assassinate Naruto just to see what they would do. A couple of kage bushin should do the trick- all he had to do was take Naruto out for ramen during a shift-change and then they could watch and see what happened.

“I got lost-”

“On the road of life, I know.” Naruto rolled his shoulder and glanced at him- so much like his father it was like the past came back to punch him in the stomach. Even the tiredness around the eyes matched. “I got a genin problem, Kaka-sensei.”

Kakashi blinked. It wasn’t often that Naruto just jumped straight to business. Idly he pulled out his book, and found a spare bit of wall to lean against, “Oh?”

To his surprise, Naruto sighed, “What would you say if I told you I had a genin send her Jounin-sensei to the hospital?”

With a flat stare over the edge of his book, Kakashi snorted. “That she had gotten lucky.”

“Uh-huh. Right.” Naruto shook his head with a bemused smile. “And if I said all the reports summed it up as skill?”

Kakashi’s interest peaked in spite of himself. “There was no one with that kind of potential in this year’s graduating class.”

The Nanadaime’s expression turned mischievous, more smile than exhaustion. “Homeschooled.”

With a snap, Kakashi closed his book and tapped it once against his chest. Possibilities danced in the back of his mind- but only one stood a chance. Naturally it was the one that would be… complicated. “Mah, Sakura-chan’s daughter recently got her headband, didn’t she?”

“Got it one.”

Well. That could be a problem. “What happened?”

Naruto shuffled through his papers, pulling out one from middle of his pile. He coughed once and read aloud, “Team 5 was preparing for their daily training at training ground 12. Ji-sensei took us one on one to practice their sparing. When it was Haruno’s turn, Ji-sensei said something to her, I did not hear what it was.

“Haruno replied and the two started sparing. Myself and Noburu were working on our chakra exercises when the screaming started. We ran over to Ji-sensei and Haruno and found Ji-sensei on the ground. He was the one who had been screaming.”

Naruto paused and grabbed another paper. “This is Ji’s Hospital record from today. As Shizune puts it, he suffered such a terror that his body when into shock-induced shutdown.”

“Genjutsu then.”

Naruto shrugged. “I mean I guess, but for a 12 year old to create a genjutsu that strong we’re talking once in a generation stuff.”

He could see where his successor was going with this. Hard not to considering his other student’s poor taste in husbands was in the mix. The parallels that could be drawn- it would be enough to make anyone antsy. In this case a daughter taking after her mother would be reassuring; a daughter taking after her father could cause a panic. “Does the council know?”

“No- and I’m keeping it that way until I have a solution.”

Wise, given the likelihood that they’d side with the Jounin and call it insubordination. Or worse.

“Is that why you wanted me here?”

“No. I just like your company- of course that’s why I want you here!” Naruto stood up, pacing. “This is Sakura-chan’s daughter, I can’t screw this up.

“But she’s also Itachi’s kid- which comes with a whole package full of baggage to match the crazy. And that was before we knew she could send a Jounin to the hospital.” Naruto growled, running a hand through his hair and leaned back against the front of his desk. “She can’t stay on her team. Ji has already said he’d step down as a shinobi if she comes back and I can’t afford to be losing Jounin right now.”

Kakashi snorted. “Ji was promoted during wartime and holds that rank with the skin of his teeth.”

The glare Naruto sent him didn’t have any killing intent, but the steel behind the blue cut straight to the bone. The urge to straighten came- and went. “Ji’s capabilities are not why you’re here. What I want to know from you, Kaka-sensei, is if you would be willing to relax a requirement for your corps.”

That was an interesting request. Wise even. An artful solution. Removed Sakura’s daughter from the general forces- easing their worries about an Uchiha running around with their kids- and would reassure the council with the ample ways ANBU could disappear if she caused problems. If they were discrete about it, created a good cover story, no one outside of the corps would be concerned about a second Uchiha Itachi happening. More importantly, ANBU was outside of Council's jurisdiction, answerable only to the Hokage. The girl would be protected from their interference on her career. 

As long as she survived it.

But Naruto was right, Konoha’s forces were decimated during the last war. Kakashi couldn’t exactly turn down a talented kunoichi when one walked up with a pedigree. “Fifteen years old was instituted for a reason.”

Naruto’s grin returned, blinding, “Consider an exception.”

Blasted students. He should have left this one tied up. He pulled out his Icha Icha once more, “I want to meet her before anything is decided.”

The blond waved a hand at him absently, “Fine. Stand there and look intimidating.” Leaning a little further back, he pushed the button on his intercom, “Send Haruno in, Shika.”

A door swung open slowly, and a blast from the past walked in. Unease crawled up Kakashi’s spine as the girl closed the door behind her. Jet black hair, long and well-cared for, framed an angular face common for Uchiha. Looking almost delicate, with long fingers and artist hands and lean muscles that spoke to a proper training schedule and diet. The eyes though- Sakura’s seaform green glanced at him before focusing on Naruto.

Second coming of Uchiha Itachi indeed. At least she wore green with her black.

Her bow to Naruto was textbook, “Hokage-sama.”

“At ease, Kagami. You’re not in trouble.” Naruto paused, “Well, not much.”

The girl was wary as she straightened and relaxed into an eased position, “Thank you, Hokage-sama.”

“Eh, just call me Naruto-jii when we’re in private. Sakura-chan was my teammate for years, you know.”

Kagami glanced at Kakashi, “I understand, Hokage-sama.”

“Mah, you’re no fun.” Naruto didn’t pout per-say but the tactic worked to ease the girl’s shoulders down. Then the Nanadaime sighed softly- when did his student get so good at acting?- “Do you know why you’re here?”

The girl, to her credit, didn’t flinch or otherwise show discomfort, “The training… incident with Ji-sensei.”

“Yeah. That.” Naruto’s smile turned soft, “Can you tell me what happened?”

Sakura’s daughter swallowed, “Ji-sensei wanted to assess each of us to develop a training plan, so we were sparring with him individually. He told us not to hold back, to come at him with the intent to kill. That he could handle anything we could throw at him.”

With average Genin, that probably wouldn’t have been a problem. Then again, someone should have also caught the budding genjutsu master under their nose before anything like this happened. Even homeschooled kids had to take the same graduation exam as the Academy students. A ball had been dropped somewhere.

“I wasn’t sure so I held back a bit. I was told growing up that good shinobi don’t show their whole hand- you never know who could be watching. But… I lost my temper.” Kagami ducked her head, hands clenched into fists at her side. “And I set a genjutsu trap. I didn’t think that Ji-sensei wouldn’t be able to get out of it.”

Naruto nodded, like some pieces came together for this puzzle. “It must have been quite the trap. Were you using your dojutsu?”

Kagami’s head snapped up, seafoam eyes wide, “The Sharingan is never to be used on allies. Ever. Not even in spars.” Kakashi could just about hear Sakura’s voice in that- the lectures given.

But how then? That kind of genjutsu work took years to learn. Assuming Ji had no idea about Kagami’s abilities, he should have noticed a genjutsu being laid on him. Kakashi glanced up from his page. “How?”  

The genin turned her head to look at him squarely and shrugged. “I kept them subtle, and built them slowly. He found the first one, but didn’t notice the second one in time.”

The girl was capable of layering her genjutsu? While sparing?

Well. That answered the question of which parent handled her training. The unease he felt was still there, but the commander in him was just about salivating at the idea of a kunoichi on par with either of her parents.  

“You said that you lost your temper,” Naruto cut in, bringing the girl’s attention back to him, “Why?”

Kagami ducked her head to look at the wooden boards of the floor. “It’s stupid, Hokage-sama. The important thing is that I did.”

Classic evasion. Might have even worked if it wasn’t for the fact Naruto understood people better than most people understood themselves. The Hokage pushed away from his desk and crouched down in front of the girl, and she lifted her head a hair. “If something happened that upset you, as your honourary uncle, I want to know about it.

Kakashi watched that Uzumaki charm work its way through the girl’s defences. Her fists shook for a second then stilled. Quietly, so quietly Kakashi had to strain to hear her, she replied, “He called my mother a traitor, that she married a traitor, and that I would be a traitor just like them.”

Well. This entire situation just kept getting more and more interesting. Naruto’s soft smile stayed in place and he ruffled the girl’s hair making her blink. “Sakura-chan is one of the most honourable kunoichi of Konoha and our hospital has never been better because of her. Your dad was a great shinobi who fought on our side in the Fourth War and now makes the best dango in town. Both add to what Konoha is and help make it the best it can be.

“If you could be anything like your parents, I would be a blessed Hokage.”

Kakashi stared at his successor, trying to find the little genin he tied to a post in the face of a man who spoke so carefully to build his shinobi. Words that worked so well, the girl just kept nodding and maybe had a tear in her eye.

“Okay.” He patted her head, ruffling the long locks, “Kaka-sensei and I need to have a chat now. Can you go wait outside for a second?’

The girl pulled herself together, bowed again, and left.

Kakashi caught the very moment Naruto’s warm grin turned into a dark frown- seconds after the door closed. Blue eyes glanced at him, “Last I checked, I’m the only one who gets to decide who’s a traitor around here.”

“Ji overstepped his bounds.” Kakashi agreed, “Want me to look into it?”

Naruto waved him off as he sat down, “I got him. Can’t help the way everyone talks, but he should not have done that to one of his students.” Finger tapped against the wood of the desk, with a snort he turned, “But what about you, Kaka-sensei? What do you think?”

He could do better with this one, he had done well with Yamato after all was said and done. The new rules he had implemented for the corps, like the age restriction, time limits on shifts, and mandatory counselling, had proven effective so far. He could keep an eye on this one too, be a little more hands-on, train her when time allowed. Give her everything she needed to survive the path she had been placed on.

And Naruto had learned from the Sandaime’s mistakes: Sasuke’s fist through his chest had been a tough lesson on that matter. Kagami would never been asked to do the impossible. Besides, there was no Uchiha clan, not any more. “Her parents won’t thank you.”

The Hokage winced. “Yeah. I’ll talk to Sakura-chan.”

Kakashi closed his book with a snap, “I’ll speak to Itachi then.”

Naruto brightened, “So, that’s a yes to the exemption, then?”

With a pained sigh, Kakashi pushed away from the wall and headed back for the window. “Fine.”

The reigning Hokage’s ‘Woo-hoo’ echoed in the tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come find me on [ Tumblr!](https://basicallyanidiot.tumblr.com/)


	3. Impromptu Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's the last person Itachi expected to see in a small fishing town in the south.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Or how the two started travelling together. : D

**Impromptu Meetings**

 

**~*~*~*~**

 

It was hard not to stare. He had been trained better than that, but true shock was hard to fight and harder still to overcome. The body was unable to listen to the mind and reacted with a primordial instinct. 

So Itachi watched, unable to look away from the distinctive pink hair bob up and down in the wave of crowds of a Saturday afternoon in the market. There was a parting, a break in the sea of people dressed in bright colours, and for a moment Itachi saw a face he had come to know well during the war. The high brow with a diamond that the uneducated might mistake as decorative. Full lips painted in a light rose in a small smile. Older, more mature but her youth apparent. Happier, hopefully.

It had been at least a year, probably closer to two, since he last saw Haruno Sakura. Before she left to wander the world, vanishing from the battlefield hospital with the Hokage’s blessing. Beating him to it. Rumour had it she had been training in some far off forest.

To run into her again, in the middle of a tiny fishing village in the south-

He saw the very moment when she recognized him, the way she slowly turned her head to the tea stall, seafoam eyes going wide. What he expected was her scorn- for a stormy expression to form and draw her thin brows together. He wasn't a patient any more and did not require assurances, real or fake. 

The smile was a surprise.

Sakura wove her way over to him, dodging people like she had done it before, coming to stand in the shade of the cloth overhang of his table. “Uchiha-san,” came the bright greeting, “You’re still alive.”

It was still the shock. His body reacted before his mind did and a smile tugged at the corner of his lip, “To the regret of many.”

If possible, her smile widened and she laughed, “Can I have a seat?" Wordlessly he gestured to the chair opposite him. She didn’t sit gracefully. Her backpack hit the ground and she almost flopped into the offered seat with a sigh. His mother would have had a fit if she had seen it. “Thanks.”

Sakura promptly seemed to ignore him, turning her gaze out to the dirt street, smile still wide. The strange trees of the area rustled in the wind and he could faintly make out the sound of the ocean, “I didn’t expect to run into anyone I knew this far south.”

Surreal. That was the word he was looking for. This entire thing was surreal. “We’re hardly friends, Haruno-san.”

“True.” She turned back to him and he saw, for a second when her smile wavered, just a sliver of the sorrow hidden behind a pretty face. War had that effect on people. “But we stopped the end of the world together so we have to be at least acquaintances.”

“Hmm.” Was she lonely perhaps? He had never been accused of being a good conversation- what was she looking for? Was it the same reason he had come to this town? A whim?

Sakura turned back to the street, absently waving the server for a cup of tea. Even after the server returned with a cup and a fresh pot, she didn’t bother looking at him.

He took a sip- enjoying the faint taste of plums, “Why are you here?”

Her eyelids slipped closed, as she set her chin as she propped up a hand. “Did you know there’s a variety of octopus so poisonous a single bite can kill 3 adult men.” She opened her eyes again, still focused on the crowds and the bustle of the morning market. “The species is small, hard to see, and often lives in the shallow waters of tide pools. There’s no antidote.

“The past year’s conditions were perfect for the population and they had a baby boom that matured this year. The species claimed a dozen people so far this year.”

It was funny, whenever someone spoke of Haruno Sakura, they often spoke of her prowess as a fighter, that she took down Sasori and punched a god. It seemed no one remembered that Sasori’s specialty was poison, not just puppets, and that in order to defeat him, someone would have had had to overcome it.

Haruno Sakura was more than her fists. “You’re researching.”

“Yes.” She sighed, “I think I can develop an antidote, but making it available for the villages is my real challenge. It has to be something that’s easy to make, or at least easy to store. It’s kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without all the pieces.”

Medical research was out of his depth. Aside from his brief studies on the respiratory system, his knowledge was entirely on the ways to remove life from a body, not return it. “Ah.”

She smiled again, and turned back to the table but didn’t elaborate. They sipped their tea in silence, comfortable. Sakura set her cup down when it was empty, and idly, like his mother had taught him, he refilled it. Glancing up, he paused with the ceramic pot still in hand.

The medic was staring at the pot now, brows furrowed together and a finger against her lips. A thumb came up and rubbed the side of her mouth. Suddenly, she announced, “That could work.”

Itachi slowly set the pot down, keeping a hand on it and his movements controlled. “What could?”

Sakura didn’t even look at him, still focused on the pot as she muttered, “The antidote. What If I could administer it orally as a tea? It’s a common practice in this part of the world. Served every day with breakfast, lunch and supper. Could use it to build up a tolerance to the toxin, create an emergency one just in case someone who hasn’t kept up, but I would need to test it. And I need more research on the cultural significance of tea-”

Unease filled him when those seafoam eyes moved from looking at the pot to him. Her smile turned positively feline, “Say, Uchiha-san. With your Sharingan, your memory must be pretty good.”

Everything screamed that this was trap. He should get up and leave- no matter how tempting it was to watch a master in her element- no good could come from this. He nodded once instead.

Sakura’s smile widened and he was suddenly reminded of the fact the only kunoichi in the world able to stand on the same pedestal as the rest of the illustrious Neo-sannin was sitting across from him. “Want to help me with a project?”


	4. Overthinking Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes relationships just happen. 
> 
> (Or the start of dropping 'research' from 'research partners')

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> : D

**Overthinking Matters**

 

**~*~*~*~**

 

“You know, there’s something odd going on.” Sakura said as she handed a washed bowl to the man standing on her right. He accepted it with a tilt of his head, and dried the bowl with a dish towel before returning it to the shelf beside him with the other dishware. Their routine after so many months cooped up in the mountain temple.

Winter had closed the path out before they had finished their previous research project- then presented a new one when one of the monks told them a legend about a flower that only bloomed after snowstorms capable of combating infection. No one prior had thought it interesting, and the library had proven challenging with a unique system for organizing the whole mess, turning a simple project complicated. Thankfully, Itachi kept his mouth shut, read fast and wrote concise notes. He was invaluable partner as they navigated and translated scrolls older than the Hidden Countries.

Sakura’s brows drew together as she stuck her hand back into the hot, soapy water. “I just can’t quite put my finger on it.” She continued, grabbing another bowl for drying. The monks always seemed to smile when they saw Sakura and Itachi wander by, scrolls in hand and debating aloud.

“Perhaps you are overthinking it.” Came a quiet suggestion from her companion. He seemed amused by the whole predicament. Then again, being a ‘dead’ man seemed to improve Itachi’s sense of humour.

She narrowed her eyes at him, meeting a black gaze steadily, and almost shoved the dripping bowl at him. “Shut up, Uchiha. I’m not overthinking it. Something weird is going on here.”

The bowl was accepted with a gentle smile, rare and fleeting, and Sakura could feel her frown dissipating. She had had enough of the Uchiha and their drama for a lifetime but, damn, genetics had certainly been kind when it came to appearance. Especially that smile- She shook her head and grabbed the next chopstick.

They made it to the last piece of dishware- the rice pot that had pieces of burnt on rice grains because sometimes Sakura could find her attention drawn to an interesting concept rather than watching the stove even when Itachi had asked how the rice was going- in silence. She had to scrub, cheeks flushed from embarrassment because how hard was it to cook rice? “Not a word.” She said, handing the scrubbed pot over.

Itachi didn’t say anything, but he didn’t move away from her side after he had dried and put the pot away. Sakura drained the sink, flicking off the water, and reached over to grab the dish towel from him only for Itachi to move it out of her reach.

Instead, before Sakura could let him know exactly what she thought of that, Itachi gently grabbed her hands and dabbed them dry with the towel. Even through the towel she could feel how warm his hands were, and inexplicably her mouth went dry. It was a nervous response- part of the fight or flight instincts she knew- and Sakura wasn’t nervous or stressed. Was she? Her heart seemed to pound in her ears, and she tried to open her mouth and say something, only for words to fail her.

Itachi took his time, periodically checking that he had gotten every drop from her calluses and scars, before pausing and looking up and meeting her gaze. She forgot to breathe for a moment.  “Perhaps,” he said softly, “It is only odd because you keep fighting it, Sakura.”

He managed to fold the towel, hang it up, and leave the room before Sakura’s mind reconnected with her body and left her sputtering in the kitchen. “Oi!” She said after a moment when intelligent thought returned and she processed what had just happened, “You can’t just say something like that and walk away!”


	5. (Another) First Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi meets his daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be studying.
> 
> Anyway. For SomebodyLost, who prompted for the birth of Kagami/Why name her Kagami. I hope you enjoy!

**(Another) First Meeting**

 

Wrapped in white, the bundle was tiny in his arms. Less than 8 pounds, the nurse had informed him, but healthy enough. Itachi wasn’t sure if he agreed with her assessment- the weight seemed to fluctuate between the heaviest thing he had ever held and something so light and delicate he had to protect it from the world. Both, perhaps, in the end. 

Stretched out on the bed, Sakura exhaled softly as she hopefully drifted into a well-deserved sleep. Her candy pink hair falling in strands from the messy bun she had pulled it all into. Exhaustion coloured her face, from the bags under her eyes to the slight pale of normally tan skin.

The bundle shifted, and he looked down on chubby cheeks and a button nose as eyes scrunched in discontentment. A hand, impossibly small stretched on the edge of the blanket. He rested the tip of his index finger near enough for the baby’s hand to latch on with a grip that surprised him. Strong. Healthy. Everything that he could want for a child. 

His child. The thought chilled him to his core. 

This wasn’t supposed to be a possibility. This was an illusion, Madara must have been successful after all- except- Madara had been defeated. But- to be sure-

The chakra drain of his kekkei genkai was familiar as the world turned crisper, more defined and slow-moving. In his arms, the bundle was crystal clear, present and real, as the moment burned into his memory forever. 

“Mah,” Sakura cut, sleep softening her words, at his side, “I thought I told you not to use the Sharingan unless you have to.” 

She had. Her lectures stringent and to the point. She had saved his eyesight once- she wouldn’t be able to do it again. Not with the nerve damage it caused. “Hm.” Itachi let the chakra go, eyes still firmly on the bundle, his daughter. “This is a memory worth saving.” 

Blankets shifted on the bed as Sakura sat up. “Have you thought of a name?”

He had. But a name could be a burden. His daughter deserved better than to be tied to his past. She needed the strength of her mother, of Sakura’s reputation, of her teammates, of her connections to Hokages past and present. The name of Haruno was a blank slate in some ways- a rising name resting on Sakura’s shoulders. Expectations would be high, yes, but none of them would be associated with the murders of kin, or the Akatsuki. 

“She should be a Haruno.” He said finally. 

The silence was telling of Sakura’s surprise. She sounded more awake now, “Are you sure?”

It was a decision that needed no reflection. For his branch of the family… the name of Uchiha should die with him. Leaving his brother free to build the clan into something better. “Yes.” 

“Alright then.” Sakura shifted again, drawing closer to lean against him.  “She will be a Haruno. Haruno what though?”

Memories of a spars in summer suns crossed his mind. Along with flashes of a grin as his cousin shunshined around him. Shisui was a name too close to not hurt, but among his relatives… 

Though, Shisui had often spoken of his father in the quiet moments between spars. A man who learned under the Nidaime Hokage, and saved his teammates over and over. The Will of Fire had burned bright in his father, Shisui told him once, and he would do everything to keep his own burning just as bright. Itachi’s cousin had, in the end. A life dedicated and given to Konoha. 

Close enough to mean something, but a name of hope. Of the strength that burned bright. Perhaps his daughter could inherit some of the fire in Shisui’s family line. 

His daughter shifted again, mouth opening in a yawn. An improvement over the crying earlier. Unfocused eyes blinked at him as the grip on his finger tightened. “Haruno Kagami.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say 'hi' on[ Tumblr!](https://basicallyanidiot.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> Want to see more of the Haruno Family? Prompt me on [ Tumblr!](https://basicallyanidiot.tumblr.com/)


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